An all-metal poultry-cooling rack : (Public patent no. 1,020,575)

Historic, Archive Document

Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge,
policies, or practices.

[ssued April 9, 1918.

United States Department of Agriculture,

BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY— Circular No. 115.
CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief of Bureau.

AN ALL-METAL POULTRY-COOLING RACK.1

(Public patenl No. 1,020,575.)

By M. E. Pennington and H. C. Pierce,
Food Research Laboratory.

It is essential that the animal heat be removed from poultry as
quickly as possible after killing. The all-metal portable rack for
the cooling and grading of poultry, rabbits, game, etc., which is
herein described, facilitates cooling and permits rapid and accurate
grading.

Figure 1 shows a rack capable of holding 180 chickens, ducks, or
rabbits, Is to 60 turkeys, or 72 geese. Figure 6 shows the same rack
filled with poultry. Figures '2 and :> show the construction of the
iron fingers and the base of the rack, respectively, and figures 4 and
5 give detailed working drawings of a rack which will hold 100
instead of 180 chickens.

Dimensions of angle-iron poultry-cooling rack.

Height, over all, 69 inches.

Width, over all. 38 inches.

Width of base, 3s inches.

Length of base. <>1 inches.

Width of top of frame, 33 inches.

Height of top of frame, 68 inches.

End supports, 4 inches apart at base.

Mend in end supports. IP inches from tloor.

First cross bar. 2!> inches from floor.

Cross bars, 8 inches apart

Two bottom cross bars. P inches apart.

Knd cross brace. 20 Inches long. 57 Inches from floor.

1 Covered bj public patont No. l.Oi'O,.-.?"*. under which the device herein described may
!"• used by anyone without the payment of royalties.
77343°— -Cir. 115—13

2

ALL-METAL POULTRY-COOLING BAG K.

Center brace rods. 70 inches long.

Top of base. 8 inches from floor.

Corner brace plates. 10 inches on square edges.

Fi<;. 1.— Angle-iron ponltry-coulini: rack. (All metal except finger wire is galvanized.
Finger wire is No. 10 stool w ire, tinned. One Bet <>f casters may be replaced l>y wheels
if desired. K.ich rack this size holds ISO chickens, rabbits, or ducks, or 4s turkeys.!

End brace plate. 10 inches wide. 9 inches high nipper comers beveled).
Casters, t; inches in diameter, 11-inch face: extra-strong caster socket.
Base frame. 2 inch X \ inch angle iron.

ALL-METAL POULTRY-COOLING RACE.

3

End supports. 1A inch X & inch angle iron.
Cross bars, 1 | inch X £ inch angle iron.
End crossbars, 1{ Inch X £ inch angle iron.

Center brace rods. |-incb or J-inch round iron, threaded at both ends, one end

passing through center of end cross bar, and the other end replacing one of the
bolts fastening end supports to end brace plate.
Corner and end brace plates. 1-inch Mat Iron!

Fingers for holding feet of birds made of No. 10 tinned steel wire. The
fingers are formed by bending the wire around 3 pins placed In a triangular
position. The tinkers are 3 .J inches long and approximately 11 inches apart.
Center to center, being spaced so as to allow 30 openings to hold 15 chickens
within a distance of 58^ Inches, which is the clear distance along the cross

FlG. 2. — Construction of wire fingers.

bars between the upright supports on either end. The slots between the
tinkers are g inch wide at the bottom and then widen to a round point at the
top as shown.

The finger wire is fastened on with J inch X ] inch oval-headed machine bolts,
galvanized. It requires 32 bolts to each cross bar.

All other bolts or rivets are inch X g inch galvanized, except the caster
bolts, which are 1 inch X 4 inch galvanized.

The upright snpjHjrts are fastened to end brace plates with 2 bolts each.

The corner brace plates are riveted to base.

The caster spindles are g inch in diameter, turning in an extra-strong socket,
as considerable strain comes at this place.

4

ALL-METAL POU LTR V-COOLI X< i RACK.

The size of the rack may be changed in accordance with the num-
ber of birds to be handled, the size of the doorways through which
it must be moved, and other conditions, by changing the dimensions
of the base, the height, and the length. The general construction,
however, should remain the same. The racks in use by the depart-
ment have been constructed to enter doors 6 feet high and 1 feet
wide and for use in small rooms. Where the coolers have a width
of at least 20 feet the rack may be more easily controlled by one
man if two fixed wheels are placed in the center of the sides of the
base frame and one caster in the center of each end of the base. The

Fi<;. ."». Detail of construct ion of base.

rack as shown, however, with wheels in each corner is slightly easier
to build and may be moved forward in any direction with but Little
difficulty if the casters are kept clean and well oiled. The detailed
drawing shown in figure 5 has two fixed-direction wheels at one end
also, making it easier for the rack to be controlled by one man. but
making it more difficult to be tinned.

While the size of the rack may be changed in accordance with the
environment in which it is to be used, there are certain dimensions
which should be constant : namely, the height of the bottom finger
bar from the floor should be 2 feet 5 inches (if closer than this

ALL- METAL IM) L LTR Y -COOLING RACK.

5

to the floor, the heads of the chickens will drag) : the distance of the
finger bars apart should never be Less than 7\ inches, and. where
the run of poultry is uniformly large, it may be necessary to increase
thi- distance by 1 inch: and the angle of the supports holding
the upright finger bar should be as specified, and the dimensions of
the finger wires themselves should not be altered.

The materials required for the construction of the rack are angle
iron, No. LO B. & S. gauge tinned steel wire, holts. Or rivets, fixed
wheels, and casters. Iron and copper wire are too soft, and brass
wire is too brittle. Sizes smaller than No. 10 are too easily bent to
be serviceable, while larger sizes are too stiff to bend well around the
rivets or to hold the varying-sized legs of the chickens.

The wire lingers may be fastened to the angle iron by means of
rivets instead of bolts, and the rivets are to be preferred, because they
give a more rigid construction. The finger wire will in the course
of time show rust, as will also the bars. They should therefore be
galvanized, and it is desirable to dip the bars with the finger wire in
place before fastening the bars to the uprights. l>y so doing a neater
job is obtained and, in addition, the spelter helps to hold the wire
rivets or bolts together. If it is not done when the rack is first as-
sembled, the finger bars may be removed at any time and so treated.

The racks which are shown in figure 6 have been in use for one
year with no signs as yet of strain or wear except that in some places
the finger wire is rusting and a few bolts show signs of rust. These
racks, however, were made from pregalvanized material and not
galvanized after assemblage.

Ajside from the advantage of ease of handling and a maximum
utilization of cooler space, these racks are highly desirable from the
viewpoint of preserving the condition of the poultry. Their routine
use in poultry-packing houses is generally according to the follow-
ing plan:

The birds, having been killed, roughed, and pinned, are conveyed
to a receiving -tat ion in the killing room, where the feet of the birds
are washed, if this is necessary, the beak freed from blood, and the
head wiped to remove bloodstains and at once inclosed in an appro-
priate paper head wrap. If satisfactory to the killing-room in-
spector, the bird is immediately hung on the portable rack. As soon
as the rack i- filled, which in an establishment of the ordinary size
doe- not usually require more than one-half to three-quarters of an
hour, it is wheeled into the chill room.

At the expiration of 18 to 24 hours a thermometer is inserted
through the vent into the body cavity of the largest bird on the rack
which is located in the mosl unfavorable position in the chill room.
If the reading shows that the temperature of the body cavity of the

ALL-METAL POULTRY-COOLING RACK.

/VP '/O ^)/e><^/ y^//~<^;//s?s7e>&/

ft c\ rvA? '

-i\\ A " Kn

Y

' ■ 2^

2 /?/*/&/ /?o/As

4. — Working drawing: of angle-iron cooling rack to hold 100 fowls. Section A-E

AU.-.MKTAL roii,ii;\ idtll.l Mi K AC K.

7

!

0V0

3-*

Jf 777/crAr

~JA S afar??. /^/ZktA . ^ jSdei

B

Fiu. 5. — Working drawing of angle-Iron cooling rack to hold loo fowls. si<i<- elevi

i 1 ion.

8

ALL-METAL POULTBY-COOLING RACK.

bird is the .same as that of the surrounding atmosphere, preferably
from 30° to 32° F, all the birds on the racks are boxed or barreled
for shipment. It can be seen that grading from these racks is more
easily and more accurately accomplished than from the old type of
rack, on which the birds are laid rather than hung and where they
are subjected to the many handlings which must occur if they are
sorted out into piles on a grading table, all of which routine is
extremely detrimental to the appearance of the Mesh.

Fig. G.— Filled racks standing in chill room.

The carcass of the bird when hung by the feet is straight, and
therefore makes a better looking package than one which is distorted
<»n one side by being laid warm upon a wooden support. Neither
docs it sweat under the wings, since these fall back when the bird is
hung, thereby eliminating the bitterness which is so often present in
the flesh of the wing due to retarded cooling. The fact that the
wings do not lie close to the body, as they do when the bird is laid
on its side to chill, is no detriment to the making of a neat package.

Figure <*> shows a chill room in which a number of these racks are
standing.

Approved :

James Wilson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

Washington, I). c\. Satouary J~>. WIS.

O

WASHINGTON : ■ ;< »VEP.N .M EXT PRINTING OFFICE : 1913